Tea Leaves
by YourLogicIsFlawless
Summary: Tea leaves and soulmates really aren't all that different. Right?


**The things I do for you, Eli (I'm kidding...kind of). Happy Birthday bae, I love you!**

 **~o~**

Zuko never would have guessed that an ordinary girl from the lower ring in the Earth Kingdom would have kept him up all night smiling like a twelve year old school boy. All in all it was quite pathetic considering his position and background. Him, the Prince of the Fire Nation getting doe-eyed over a girl, a refugee nonetheless, who couldn't even manage to put her hair up in a proper ponytail.

Then again that whole statement was basically a contradiction when looking at his current situation. It made things rather awkward. Very awkward considering how paranoid he had been recently. And really, a traveling circus? He obviously needed to work on his lying skills. It would probably save him from getting anymore food stains all over his clothes from his "lack of practice" in juggling.

Still he couldn't help but smile as he sat by the fountain Jin had showed him last night. Another rather awkward situation. The one where he basically revealed his bending. How stupid was he, honestly?

He was out picking up a delivery of tea leaves for the shop, they were running low on leaves for their Maharaja Chai tea. In spite of his rapidly approaching dead line to be back at the shop, Zuko couldn't help but stop at the fountain. Not because of last night of course. No, it was just a really nice day and he was in the area.

As he sat on the ledge, looking down at his reflection he took out a couple of the small blackish leaves. They were dried and they crumpled a bit if he moved them around too much.

He didn't know why. Maybe it was the comforting warmth of the noon sun on his neck or the memories of last night. Whatever it was, he watched as he let the leaves slip through his fingers and into the cool water of the fountain. The leaves dispersed as they hit the surface. except for two that always seemed to come back to one another with the convection of the fountain, lost in the invisible current and always returning.

Maybe he was a complete and utterly hopeless romantic, but his mind instantly wandered to that of soulmates. How eventually your soulmate always found their way back to you. Zuko wondered if he would ever find his.

Or if he already had.

Okay now he was definitely reading way, _way_ to far into that tense and awkward date last night. They hadn't even had a proper conversation. And surprisingly (not really, no) this disappointed him. He realized that even if he at first thought she was trying to out him and his Uncle from being from the Fire Nation, he had been looking forward to know this girl. To really learn who _Jin_ was.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away." A bright feminine voice said behind him.

He smiled slightly to himself. "I suppose so. I guess I just followed the current back." She laughed. He was learning to like that sound.

"What does that even mean?" He turned to look at her. "Nothing in particular." She laughed to herself one more time.

"Well, come on! You've got to go back to work."

"How do you know I needed to go back." She blushed, her eyes going wide. "Are you stalking me?" She chewed on her lip before formulating her answer into words.

"More or less." Now it was his turn to laugh as she smiled at him brightly and quickly took his hand while pulling up off the fountain. At first he didn't know how to react. She was _holding his hand._ And he didn't know how to feel about that considering how pro-personal space he was. Then he remembered he'd already kissed the girl so this really wasn't a big deal.

He let her drag him back down the streets of Ba Sing Se, not saying anything, and not really needing too. He easily left the fountain and it's circling tea leaves.

Because honestly, who need leaves when he had her?

 **~o~**

 **Oh wow I ship it so much. And I think this turned out okay (meaning, Eli, you better like 'cause this was for you. You have no other option). Anyways I would also like to point out that I did my seventh grade science project on convection currents so I know what I'm talking about. I swear. I'm pretty sure I got an 'A' on it.**

 **I hope this was decent.**


End file.
